Cheers, Tigers fans! For the first time in the University’s history, an officially licensed LSU beer is being brought to the market.
The Tigers’ brew will be handcrafted at Tin Roof Brewing Company, a local Baton Rouge brewery specializing in craft beers inspired by the finest European flavors.
There’s more to be excited about – the flavor of LSU’s new beer will be decided by LSU’s dedicated fanbase.
On Tin Roof’s website, fans can enter a contest to be randomly selected for a blind taste test of 10 test batches. On June 14 and 18, the winning applicants will be invited to the brewery to sample all of the flavor options before casting their votes.
“Most of the test batches are lagers. We did a couple of ales, but we kind of figured that this beer needed to be something lighter,” Tin Roof co-founder William McGehee said.
Over 1,100 people have signed up so far, although nowhere near that amount will be chosen for the actual taste test.
“Unfortunately, these are really small batches, so there’s not a ton of beer,” McGehee said. “We’re going to try to get as many people as we can so that we have a wide range of opinions.”
The winning flavor will be announced shortly after the brewery tabulates all of the votes on June 18. Tin Roof plans to start brewing as soon as possible after the announcement, and the finished product should be available for purchase before Labor Day weekend and the kickoff of LSU’s football season.
Due to a rule in the SEC that bans the sale of beer in stadiums, the new brew won’t be available for purchase in Death Valley, although McGehee is hopeful Tin Roof can help to have that rule reevaluated in the future.
The official LSU beer comes as a result of a recent partnership between the University and Tin Roof. This partnership has also opened up a number of internship opportunities for students at the brewery, including PR, marketing, business and brewing internships.
“It’s tough coming out of college, not knowing what you want to do, and not having a whole lot of job opportunities in the field that you want to pursue,” McGehee said. “The craft beer industry is exploding right now.”
Tin Roof also welcomes all students 21 and over to join them at their tap room, located at 1624 Wyoming St.
Here, customers are welcome to buy brews in large quantities or sample the brewery’s selection of flagship, seasonal or specialty beers. The tap room’s hours can be found on Tin Roof’s website.
